Hours, cost: Entrance to the national monument is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Christmas. Entry for a regular passenger vehicle is $5 per vehicle.

Rules: The Bayside Trail is open only to hikers. Dogs are not allowed on the national monument grounds.

Trailhead: From interstates 5 or 8, exit at Rosecrans/Highway 209, heading west on Rosecrans into Point Loma. Turn right onto Canon Street, then left onto Catalina Boulevard (also known as Cabrillo Memorial Drive), all the way to the end. From the main parking area, walk to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. To the west of its entrance is the trail head for Bayside Trail.

Distance: From the main parking area, the round-trip is about 2.4 miles. The Bayside Trail itself from the lighthouse is about 1.8 miles round-trip with about 400 feet in elevation change.

Difficulty: Easy to moderate.

The Bayside Trail skirts San Diego Bay with views of downtown San Diego and, on the clearest days, the mesas of Mexico. Priscilla Lister

The Bayside Trail on the edge of Point Loma in Cabrillo National Monument is an urban gem for its views of the downtown skyline and San Diego-Coronado Bridge as well as for its fascinating local history.

And this year, San Diego’s “only national park” celebrates its 100th birthday all year long with special programs and events, culminating Oct. 12-14 with the Centennial Celebration Festival.

“The natural environment is much the same as when (Juan Rodriguez) Cabrillo came ashore here in 1542,” says one of the many placards along the trail. The first European to set foot on the West Coast, Cabrillo had sailed from Mexico to claim land for the king of Spain, according to the brochure visitors receive when they enter the monument.

Kumeyaay Indians greeted Cabrillo when he stepped ashore. “Some wore their long hair in braids with feathers or shells. Some of the men wore capes made of sea otter, seal or deer skin,” says the brochure. Cabrillo observed in his journals that the locals looked prosperous, and fished far out to sea in reed canoes. They made pottery, baskets and shell jewelry that they traded with their neighbors.

The Old Point Loma Lighthouse that sits on top of the peninsula, next to the trail head for the Bayside Trail, was built in 1854 and lighted San Diego’s harbor until 1891. It was one of the original eight lighthouses on the West Coast of the U.S. But standing atop that 422-foot crest, the lighthouse was too often enveloped in fog, so it was moved in 1891 to a lower elevation at Pelican Point, where it still operates today down by the tide pools.

The original lighthouse was fully restored in 2004 and now is open to view how the lighthouse keepers lived here in those rough early years.